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India's crude imports from Iran fell 40 percent in the first nine months of this year as some refiners cut purchases from the sanctions-hit nation while waiting for New Delhi to back local insurers covering plants processing the oil, Reuters reported.

European reinsurers, due to Western measures targeting Iran's disputed nuclear programme, have added a clause in contracts with Indian refiners that could mean claims arising during the processing of Iranian oil would not be met.

Fourteen Iranian border guards were killed on Friday night and six wounded in a terrorist attack in the border city of Saravan in the country's south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan . Three border guards were also taken hostage by the assailants.

Iran has delivered an official note of protest to Pakistan's chargé d'affaires in Tehran, Afkham said today at the weekly press conference in Tehran.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has described the prospects for further bilateral relations between Ankara and Tehran as "very positive", PressTV reported.

In a meeting with the Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bigdeli on Monday morning, Davutoglu pointed to the commonalties between Turkey and Iran, and underscored the role of ambassadors and diplomatic missions in facilitating the broader between the two neighboring states.

Ankara and Baghdad have accelerated a recent move toward rapprochement with mutual high-level visits as the prime ministers of two countries are planning to exchange visits in the upcoming months, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to visit Turkey in December, following the visits of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Nov. 13-14 and Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek on Nov. 22-23 to Iraq.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Oct. 27 that he would go to Baghdad after al-Maliki's visit to Turkey.

Turkey's government and military planners must decide on the country's commitment to a U.S.-led, multinational new-generation fighter jet program by mid-January 2014 at the latest, according to Turkey's top defense procurement official Hurriyetdailynews reported.

Murad Bayar, head of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), has said Ankara will renew an order for an initial batch of two F-35 aircraft soon. The order had been suspended in January.

A gunfight broke out between Afghan and foreign soldiers on the outskirts of the capital Kabul on Saturday, killing at least one Afghan serviceman and injuring a number of other soldiers, according to Afghan and NATO officials, Reuters reported.

So-called "insider attacks" are severely straining ties between the NATO-led alliance and the Kabul authorities and further undermine waning support for the war in the West.

They have become one of the Taliban insurgents' most effective weapons against the coalition.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will use his upcoming visit to London for a tripartite meeting with the British and Pakistani prime ministers to ask Pakistan about the whereabouts of a senior Taliban leader, a Karzai aide said Sunday, dpa reported.

Afghanistan believes that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar can persuade the Islamist extremist Taliban to join the peace process. A captured co-founder and commander of the Afghan movement, Baradar was released by the Pakistani government on September 20 upon Karzai's request.

Dushanbe And Kabul agreed to widen and strengthen the cooperation in shpere of security amid the withdrawal of ISAF forces from Afghanistan in 2014, CA-News reported on Monday.

According to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, the country supports the strengthening of combating with terrorism, extremism, illegal drug turnover and other international threats.

Taking into consideration the fact that NATO withdraws its forces from Afghanistan, Tajikistan is ready to provide the country with assistance in all spheres and areas, he said after his meeting with Afghanistan's head Hamid Karzai.

NATO defence ministers were due Wednesday to discuss the final phase of security transition in Afghanistan with the country's Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi and their International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners, dpa reported.

"Afghan forces are now in the lead, showing courage, confidence and increasing capability," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday.

NATO is now preparing a mission to train and support Afghan forces after its combat operations end there in 2014.

At present, Afghanistan is a springboard for drug producers and terrorist groups in the eyes of the world community. However, historically, the role of this state in the world production of opiates was insignificant. The situation changed in the 1970s, when bans on cultivation of opium poppy were imposed in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Thus, the producers began to develop the territory of Afghanistan, where the ongoing socio-political crisis had created the necessary conditions for this type of illegal economic activity.

In late 2016, the media reported that Moscow had contacts with the Taliban. Special Representative of the President of Russia on Afghanistan Z. Kabulov confirmed that the Russian side had contacts with the Taliban. As the main arguments in favor of such a position of Moscow, Z. Kabulov named the fact that the Taliban is fighting against the same insurgents in Afghanistan whom Russian is bombing in Syria. Secondly, the Taliban has rejected the idea of ​​global jihad. Thirdly, their primary goal is to save the country from the occupation and establish an independent government.

The Turkic factor becomes crucial in the involvement of Turkey in the integration processes taking place in Greater Asia and its rapprochement with Russia as a state that is actively promoting these integration projects in the international relations. The fact is, in the prevailing geopolitical situation in the world, Turkey's rapprochement with Russia meets the long-term interests of not only Turkey itself, but also the interests of the Turkic peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan.

One of the main purposes of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – to fight against international terrorism and to prevent it from penetrating the territory of the CSTO member countries – can only be achieved in close cooperation with Iran. This is due primarily to the fact that Iran has accumulated vast experience in countering international terrorism and extremism, as well as the aggressive policy of their sponsors, such as the United States and Saudi Arabia.

In Turkey, after the failed coup attempt on July 16, 2016, there goes on the sweeping of public ranks supported by the accumulated anti-American sentiment. The latter get amplified every day. Washington becomes a real demon for both the current Turkish leadership and the people of the country.

They're not on speaking terms over art. From now on, the relationship between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be described with these words. The thing to blame is the hardly talented and barely funny satire on the head of Turkey, which German comedian Ian Bemermann took the liberty of doing while on the air of the “ZDF” TV company.

At present, Afghanistan is a springboard for drug producers and terrorist groups in the eyes of the world community. However, historically, the role of this state in the world production of opiates was insignificant. The situation changed in the 1970s, when bans on cultivation of opium poppy were imposed in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Thus, the producers began to develop the territory of Afghanistan, where the ongoing socio-political crisis had created the necessary conditions for this type of illegal economic activity.

In late 2016, the media reported that Moscow had contacts with the Taliban. Special Representative of the President of Russia on Afghanistan Z. Kabulov confirmed that the Russian side had contacts with the Taliban. As the main arguments in favor of such a position of Moscow, Z. Kabulov named the fact that the Taliban is fighting against the same insurgents in Afghanistan whom Russian is bombing in Syria. Secondly, the Taliban has rejected the idea of ​​global jihad. Thirdly, their primary goal is to save the country from the occupation and establish an independent government.